March 16, 2012

We get all kinds of fan comments at Burbed. (If you’re not reading the comments as well as the articles, you’re missing out on a lot.) Here’s one that recently came in on a house that ran in November. November, 2010.

First, the old listing. This seems like a fairly typical treatment of a property with some lexically lacking listing copy.

Here’s what our new fan, Kim, had to say about our helpful home hugging. We’ve included a few pictures of the house under discussion, available to anyone with a search engine.

This is the most nasty real estate blog I’ve ever read. I’m surprised that nobody has filed a lawsuit against you for slander.

For the record, I live in Saratoga and know the Vendome area quite well because a few friends live there. Rankin and Ayer streets are full of beautiful houses. Did you ever visit the area? It’s more classy that Cupertino.

There are a few bail bonds offices since the County jail and court are approx 1 mile from the area. That’s all.

I know 2 attorneys and 3 engineers who reside on this street.

Pl be careful with your writing. It’s not funny. Put yourself in the shoes of the vendor.

btw, I’m not in the real estate business. I wonder if you hold grudges against the vendor or the listing agent.

Given that Burbed has run a different home listing every single weekday for more than six years, our having a grudge against this particular “vendor” or listing agent is not very likely.

Maybe Kim has a relationship with the vendor or listing agent and wanted us to take another look at this house. And we’d be delighted to, because it’s still for sale!

Looks like over the past year and a half, this house has had its price cut 21 percent and also managed to misplace two full bathrooms while not losing a single square foot. That must have happened with the Format entry.

But it gets even better this time! The house is no longer a Colonial. For $149,000 less, you now get a French chateau. C’est magnifique!

Also, can one slander a listing? We can think of one way, but never was this house’s repute ever discussed, for good or ill.

But don’t just point the finger at this blog. Even the Redfin agent is gossiping about this house!

Is she suggesting that entertaining be done downstairs and, um, other things up? That might be an even better money-maker than the Jail Annex suggestion last time. Thanks, Jane!

HUuh??? Built 1950 “newer home” 708 sf with 3/2 and the most ginormous lot.. I am confused. I like the “Low maintenance backyard” and the storage shed might be bigger than the house.

The house is 708 sf, but the agent reports it as 1420? Maybe the garage and that storage shed were added into the sqft land. And do you see what’s there on the front porch? I think it’s time to break out the Burbed Red Arrows, because we’re looking at some MAWBUL KAWLUM ACTION.

Also have to wonder about this Realtard leading with the kitchen cabinets instead of the awesomeness of these profound pillars.

Fortunately, there’s plenty of greenery in the back yard, so don’t worry about the seller neglecting the landscaping.

In fact, there’s so much treasure to hunt for, both on the property and in the surrounding neighborhood, that both you and your kids will enjoy being told to play outside in the Low maintenance backyard! That is, if you and your kids are intrigued by vintage automotive finds.

February 27, 2012

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend, everyone. Now that you’re all done with President’s Week, it’s time to get back to work, and that means back to finding a house to buy or sell! Burbed reader sonarrat has a regal regular sale for you in Sunnyvale!

this is a regular sale, open floor plan, close to 101 and 237, great house in a quiet neighborhood, close to stores. there’s a bonus room in the back, seller is renting for $800.00. Permits unknown.

Here’s why sonarrat thought everyone would love this place:

Sold for $230K in 2008. Wow!

Wow! is right! This house is so full of wow, they couldn’t run any other pictures, for fear of inducing heart attacks throughout area code 408 from the excitement. So let’s see what else we can find. First, Google Streetview.

A walled estate! Just lovely! Now, let’s check out the neighborhood.

E-Z Commute, too!

Hmm, this Streetview shot (obtained by clicking along Lawrence Expressway, and making right turns at Sandia and Blazingwood) looks okay. It sure looks better than the only picture of the house on the listing. Do you get the impression they don’t really want to sell this house despite the claimed “regular sale”? It must be filled with platinum bars or something! No wonder the permits are unknown.

February 14, 2012

If you’ve been a long-time reader of this blog, you may remember that burbed (our founder and long-time content creator) had this thing for pink houses. So the site occasionally would dig up a pink house for Valentines Day. This year, we found an even better listing for celebrating a day for lovers. It’s all set up for a Special date you won’t forget! Many thanks to Burbed reader The Maggadads for this fantastic find from Fremont!

Here’s what The Maggadads thought of this place with $50K spent on 2011 remodeling:

I just started reading your blog. Although I take a minor offense to the jabs you poke at Fremont, I couldn’t help but send you this listing.

I’m not sure which is cooler…the 50s themed diner or the western-themed fence. At least it has a 6-car garage!

Wait, let me check, is this a house for sale, or a commercial property? Because while it’s always good to have a space for entertaining a crowd, a 50s themed diner wasn’t exactly at the top of my list in must-haves for an 1,800 square foot house.

But a 50s themed diner AND a western themed fence, both! I can die now. What a Valentines Day you’ll have! And if your date isn’t successful, one of you can retire to the six-car garage.

Well, this is one of those good news/better news situations. The good news is yes indeed, this house is in a 100% residential district and there is no danger that one of your neighbors will be opening up a 40s themed diner to compete with yours (and incidentally use up all the street parking). The better news is, well, location, location, location!

January 18, 2012

Burbed should have gone dark on Wednesday, January 18th, to join the SOPA protest. And despite the presence of Google and Facebook and Twitter and everything that makes the Internet awesome here in our back yard, supposedly both our Senators are supporting this terrible bill. I do hope you give them a piece of your mind.

Here’s what you had to wait a day to read due to our solidarity with the web-wide blackout.

What can you get in Silicon Valley for $579,803?

On Saturday, we heard from Greg Fielding on Case-Shiller tiers. On Sunday, we saw some examples of just how much house qualified for the “upper” tier (the top third) in the counties that make up the SF index. Now here’s what you could get if you bought a house that’s an easy commute distance to some major Silicon Valley employers.

Built in 1955, and it shows, and what’s more, the house sold in a month above asking! Doesn’t feature much other than its proximity to Google and LinkedIn, but every minute you don’t sit in traffic means you can enjoy more time in this spacious home. Okay, it’s got hardwood floors, but still.

This isn’t the least expensive sale in Cupertino within the last 3 months, but it is the least expensive house where they dared show a photo. Who knows what kinds of problems lurk behind that fence? Don’t complain. It’s close to Apple.

Bring your decorator’s eye to this place, because the interior photos show you get a blank slate! And of course it’s in Rancho Rinconada!

Not only is it close to Facebook’s new location, it has Menlo Park schools! And we had to jump into the $600s to even find this house, because there weren’t any SFH sales under $600K in Menlo Park or Palo Alto.

And for $625K, you get a house that backs up to US-101. What do you think the upper tier means, Larry Ellison’s neighborhood?

Speaking of Facebook, this is the least expensive SFH sale in Palo Alto and it isn’t too far from its current headquarters. Better yet, it doesn’t back up to a freeway! Instead, it backs up to CalTrain, but you can’t have everything.

But you can have the satisfaction of knowing that the sellers wanted $750K for this well-situated 66 year old house, and didn’t get it.

Sorry we had to jump all the way to the $600s, but there’s a big gap above $570K for the last quarter’s sales in Sunnyvale. This house is in a decent part of town, although you will get plenty of traffic from nearby Washington Park (which has a swimming pool) and the library a few blocks further away. But it’s a good commute distance to Lockheed, Yahoo! and even Intel. And in an even better position to see how good the homes thrown up right after WWII ended are wearing their years.

The further east you travel, the cheaper the houses get. Palo Alto costs more than Mountain View, which costs more than Sunnyvale, which in turn costs more than Santa Clara.

That’s why this house may not look much more palatial than any of the others above, but it comes on a lot almost twice the size. It’s a good commute to Intel. And one of the fun things about the Silicon Valley market that people outside the area don’t get is that most of the cost of any existing property is the land, not the house.

Don’t get too excited about this place. It’s near the intersection of Lawrence and El Camino, and was sold “as is.” I wouldn’t expect much from the neighborhood, either, as the agent bragged it was a “regular sale.”

In the future we’ll see what you can get for a million dollars, but don’t expect any gold-plated bathroom fixtures.

December 15, 2011

Here’s a find somewhat far afield from our usual fun fare: all the way in Morgan Hill, and not on a reservoir! So there’s a good chance you won’t lose half the yard when the water level at Uvas goes up. Thanks very much to Burbed reader Tracy for this delightful domicile.

REGULAR SALE! Just $459k for a 3/2 house on 2+ ACRES in North Morgan Hill – only 10 minutes to 85/101. Look at the pictures – yes it’s rough, yes there’s a PG & E tower at the front of the lot, but, this flat deep 2+ acres has loads of potential! What would YOU do with 2+ acres? Ride horses? Grow crops? Play soccer? Raise livestock? Run your own business? Use your imagination & make it your own.

Here’s why Tracy sent this listing in to Burbed:

Take a look at his write up… It is refreshing, the realtor admits to a tower! I have shown up at many open houses only to find that a large high power unit was photo shopped out of the pictures on the MLS. Also, the pictures are very real as well, no clean- up crew here@ WYSIWYG

I guess Diogenes can put that lamp down, because Tracy has finally found us some honest listing copy. Also, with the high-voltage transmission lines so nearby, why waste the lamp oil?

Meanwhile, what would you do with 2+ acres IN MORGAN HILL? I’m thinking you could rent out some of the land to the FBs who got foreclosed on or sold short, but still have a one hour commute because they can’t afford Mountain View.

One of the listing photos shows the seller had the same idea. But do use your imagination and make it your own.

Cash flow property at a great price! Regular Sale! Great for first time homebuyer or investor in up and coming area! Close to 237/880/101, Great school district-Santa Clara Schools, This is a 2 unit property with $1700/month in total rental income, 3/1 in front, 1/1 in back

I don’t see how you could lose with this one. Rent one unit or the other, or let your slumlord self come out to party by renting out both! That is, if you can find it behind all that greenbelt.

Also, take a look at what was hiding behind the SUV, in the Streetview photo on the right. Nice to get a “feel” for the neighborhood before moving in.

At this price, you could pay cash for it, and the only way you’d ever be under water would be another 100 year flood. And that shouldn’t happen until 2083.

THIS IS A WONDERFUL HOME! REGULAR SALE!! PLS E-MAIL TENANTS 1st. DARLING STARTER HOME IN MOUNTAIN VIEW. GREAT FOR A FIRST TIME BUYER OR INVESTOR. GOOD INT. LAYOUT, LG LIVING ROOM, EAT-IN KITCHEN, STAINLESS STEEL GAS COOKTOP and FRIDGE. WASHER and DRYER JUST INSIDE BACK DOOR ADJ TO KITCHEN. GOOD SIZED REAR YD WITH FLOWERING PLANTS AND A 2 CAR GARAGE

Wow, not only pending, but the agent yanked the photos and the description, like it’s off-market! Good thing I found the photos over on Trulia. Then I found the listing copy on Zillow (they say the listing has been removed).

Here’s what dollarbin had to say about the place.

Love the site, long time reader, first time caller. I think this listing might threaten 94040’s RBA status.

Chopped from $480K to $428K and now at the magic level of $399K. We live across the street and we toured the place when it first came on the market and it’s in pretty sad shape. The current tenants basically pile up their crap and dirty laundry on the beds and throw a blanket over it to “clean up”. That said, it’s one short block from this place that set somebody back $715K in 2010, I guess that’s the value in a little staging.

To be fair, 1846 is in 94041 and has Bubb elementary whereas 208 Escuela has Castro, but the Middle and High schools are the same.

Keep up the good work.

Oh come on, dollarbin, looks like by cleaning up half the living room, that was the staging. For tenants who clean up by throwing a blanket over everything, this is a bloody miracle.

Either that or all the dirty laundry is under the couches.

As of last Thursday (10/6) there was a sold tag on the for sale sign out front, I guess somebody was able to smell a bargain over the stench of pet urine. I wonder how long before we see it fixed up and back on the market?

Oh, they really should stay for a while. Look at all the next-door neighbors to meet!

NEARLY 1 ACRE of LAND (36,062 SF. ) THE PROPERTY HAS LOTS OF POTENTIAL. TRUE VALUE IS IN THE LAND. “REGULAR SALE”. A very rare finding property in San Jose—nearby lots of public amenities. “REGULAR SALE”! — OPPORTUNITY !!! OPPORTUNITY !!! OPPORTUNITY !!! MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE.

Tired of living in a cooped-up apartment? Hate hearing neighbors through walls? Maybe you need some elbow room, and you’ll fit plenty of elbows here. Haven’t you heard? This is a very rare finding property. Also the agent is USING ALL CAPS because he can’t believe this one isn’t a short sale or REO.

That means faster turnaround time for YOU to MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE because the bank won’t be throwing roadblocks at you every step of the way. You can definitely make a lot of dreams come true with this much space, as long as your dream included South San Jose. But it says OPPORTUNITY !!! three times.

August 28, 2011

Burbed doesn’t usually feature home listings on weekends. Instead we either have thoughtful wonky pieces, commentary on news articles about the wonderful world of real estate, or just random filler for an Open Thread. Our readers aren’t in their offices avoiding workwasting time performing valuable research by visiting here, so it really doesn’t matter what we run on Saturday and Sunday. Everyone is out enjoying the beautiful weather and the Open Houses.

Today, we have a Reader Submission appropriate for a weekend piece. Please enjoy this look at “shadow inventory” by Burbed reader MS. Thanks very much!

Disclaimer

The posts on this weblog are provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confer no rights. The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and only represent the view of Burbed.com's editor. Comments are the views of commenters, not Burbed. If companies, properties, etc are mentioned on this blog, you should assume that I have a financial stake in them. Trust no one.